Silver Oaks Behavioral Hospital grand opening is Dec. 13 in New Lenox

The grand opening for the Silver Oaks Behavioral Hospital in New Lenox is scheduled for noon Dec. 13.

Construction is complete on the new state-of-the-art hospital, according to a flyer.

Silver Cross Hospital and US HealthVest teamed up last year to improve the number of mental health beds per 100,000 people in the Will County area.

The facility was proposed as a two-story, 68,000-square-foot, 100-bed behavioral health hospital. Officials announced the construction of the facility in January 2017.

Silver Oaks will be a short-term facility that offers acute treatment of mental illness and substance abuse conditions with numerous outpatient program options.

The project was expected to cost $22 million, $19 million of which was supposed to be donated to the construction.

It also was expected to bring 200 new health care jobs to Will County. The staff will treat adolescents, women, seniors and chemically dependent patients, regardless of insurance status.

The then-Silver Cross Hospital President and CEO Paul Pawlak said that if all went well, the facility would have been ready by early 2019. Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow said at the time of the announcement of construction that Silver Oaks was “nothing short of a godsend.”

There also will be a special guest in attendance. Former Bears quarterback and Super Bowl XX champion Jim McMahon will be a guest speaker. McMahon told media outlets in 2012 that he has early-stage dementia.

He was part of a lawsuit of several retired NFL players who sued the league over concussion-related injuries. He played 14 years in the league.

Silver Cross also operates a 24/7 freestanding emergency care center in Homer Glen and an urgent care center in Joliet.